About Shooting infrared video of methane pollution in Porter Ranch, CA Why the Map was created The Oil & Gas Threat Map shows that oil and gas air pollution isn’t someone else’s problem, it’s everyone’s problem. Until recently there were no limits on oil and gas methane pollution anywhere in the United States. And that’s still true in Texas. So it’s no surprise that the oil and gas industry is the United States’ largest methane polluter by far. What might be a surprise: along with methane, oil and gas production often releases toxic air pollution, like benzene – a known carcinogen. The Map was created to make aware the public and decision makers that this type of air pollution is a ubiquitous health threat that should be addressed with strong government standards. The Biden Environmental Protection Agency has proposed revised safeguards in the fall of 2022, which improve upon the 2021 proposal but must still be strengthened as far as law will allow. What the Map shows The Oil & Gas Threat Map plots the location of all active oil & gas production facilities in the United States, draws a ½ mile health threat radius around all of those facilities counts the residents, and enrolled students and schools they attend, within that health threat radius How the Map was created The Oil & Gas Threat Map was created with — Publicly available Census, Department of Education, oil & gas facility, and other data Peer-reviewed science to determine that ½ mile is a conservative distance within which oil and gas air pollution can be detected such that residents should be concerned Who created the Map Two organizations worked together — Earthworks, a national environmental group dedicated to protect communities and the environment from the negative impacts of resource extraction; FracTracker Alliance, which studies, maps, and communicates the risks of oil and gas development to protect our planet and support the renewable energy transformation. Earthworks and FracTracker Alliance did the research and provided data that FracTracker Alliance used to build the Oil & Gas Threat Map.
